Posted on 11/10/2009 1:00:00 PM PST by SmithL
Motorists continued to ignore the speed limit approaching the Bay Bridge's S-curve Monday, just hours after a driver lost control of his truck there and fell 200 feet to his death.
During the morning commute, a digital billboard at the westbound incline read, "Slow Down. 35 MPH Curve Two Miles Ahead," yet few drivers heeded the warning, perhaps because of distraction or a simple refusal to slow down, said Simon Washington, director of the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center at UC Berkeley.
Washington, an expert in traffic safety who will analyze the stretch for Caltrans in the coming days, said most of the 40-plus accidents at the site since it opened Sept. 8 reportedly were due to driver distraction or a driver's "unwillingness to reduce speed."
If that's the case, Washington said, adding rumble strips of grooved or raised asphalt may be an appropriate response.
"If people aren't aware of what's coming, rumble strips can be a very effective way to say to drivers, 'Eyes up, pay attention.' "
Yet for commuters who regularly maneuver the turn, the experience has become a daily concern, and there is no shortage of ideas on how to fix it.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
“Caltrans in the coming days, said most of the 40-plus accidents at the site since it opened Sept. 8 reportedly were due to driver distraction or a driver’s “unwillingness to reduce speed”
40 plus accidents in two months would indicate someone got something important wrong.
if that drawing is accurate representation, that is just irresponsible road design. the best ways to counter it as it is built is put so many flashing lights, road grooves, etc., that even drivers on cell phones realize there is something big coming up.
40 accidents in 2 months isn’t a driver problem, it is a road design problem.
any locals have an opinion on this?
"If that's the flow of traffic to begin with, no one is caught off guard at the curve," he said.
"The way it is now, the flow of traffic is 50 mph leading up to it. You're all moving along together, and all of a sudden the S-curve is upon you. You see brake lights, and things start to get nerve-racking quickly."
This doesn't seem all that hard. Cut the speed limit, improve signage, add enforcement.
The ongoing problem validates the notion that SF folks are robotic fools.
Idiot news people are tyring to blame Caltrans for the inattention or stupidity of drivers. 40 accidents out of 16 million+ (increases by 250K every day) cars is 1/400K.
The curve is exaggerated in the drawing.
The way most speed limits are established (to generate revenue or to assuage whiny NIMBYs) the road authorities has “cried wolf” so many times that we now ignore the signs they post. They lied and lied about speed, so why should they be surprised when most people ignore their signs.
They have signs saying slow down 40 mph area ahead. Big arrows at the curve.This used to be a straight shot. The S-curve is in there until the bridge is finished in 2012 or 2013. I rode over it last Tuesday (passenger). If you obey the limit, it is no problem.
Sometimes only drastic measures will work. In PA there is a spot where one highway ends at another in a T-intersection with cloverleaf ramps. There were several fatal accidents and many non-fatal. They put up message boards, signs. arrows, etc. The only thing that finally helped wsa when they put some of the wrecked cars on display on pedestals at that curve.
Over where I-290 east merges into I-495 north in Marlboro, MA. there is a notorious hair pin turn. No matter how many flashing lights and depictions of tipping trucks and warning signs, every couple of months a truck spills. The local topography is so contrained, they’d have to blast a path through a large, high granite hillside to increase the radius of curvature.
I always stay in the far left hand lane to ensure no dummies hit me. I have been forced off that lane, into the exit and had to drive to the bottom of the island, turn around and get back on.
“any locals have an opinion on this?”
The entire bridge travesty - from this bad design, pieces falling off into the roadway, charges of poor welding, etc. etc. - has taken 20-years from earthquake to current. The orignal bridge took something like 2-3 years to build - the entire thing! It is a perfect example of government stupidity, incompetence, union rip-offs, and utter, breathtaking corruption that should enrage all taxpayers.
It won’t, of course. The zombie-voters of California are barely aware of how badly the State government is screwing them.
This is a temporary detour. The bridge has work ongoing to try and finally get it up to snuff.
Fact is drivers on the Bay Bridge drive way too fast. The S curve has had lots of traffic on it ( in the millions of cars) and only 40 have been stupid enough to crash. This stupid truck driver was going 50 through a curve that can never be taken at that speed. Truck drivers in California are scary. They drive huge death machines and act as if they are in sports cars ——and for those of you who are good truck drivers, I say thank you. Truck drivers usesd to be the best drivers around. That is no longer true
See my answer to post #2. The dfesign is fine -— the drivers are not
As a libertarian, I believe they shouldn’t have any speed limit. People have a right to drive as fast as they want. Why should people that can drive safely at faster speeds be penalized because some others can’t?
In fact, they should remove the guard rail along that portion of the bridge to weed out the poor drivers that much more quickly. If they can’t handle the speed they should either slow down or drive over the edge (and make way for people that can handle the higher speeds.)
This is a free nation and I have the right to drive as fast, as drunk, and as high on drugs as I want to.
And if you have ever driven through the S curve you would change your snarky little remark. That speed limit is meaningful and well posted
Many years ago I wrote about a bad S-curve in a small New England town where I was the local newspaper reporter. I gave a similar description of the dynamics, the poor design, the consequences, etc., after a man lost his life at the curve.
The following weekend, a woman used my article as the blueprint for her suicide on that curve.
The moral of the story: Drivers will do what drivers will do. The design has to be smarter than the drivers, because the law alone will not control them. The only regulators are the design and their own self-interest.
Most yellow (warning) speed limit signs are set at a speed that would represent a 0.2g to 0.3g turn ... Most 1960’s cars could negotiate turns at 0.5g’s to 0.6g’s ,, and today even the largest SUV’s can pull 0.7g’s with great amounts of control,, some cars can hit the magic 1.0g number.
The whole bridge is posted at 50, but you’d better be in the slow lane if you’re going to go 50. It’s a wide, generally straight multi-lane bridge, and people are used to driving at freeway speeds—60 or 65. The speed limit on the s-curve is 40, and apparently it’s a “we really mean it” 40, not a “gentle suggestion” 40. And from what I’ve seen and read, there weren’t all that many warning signs about the need to sharply decelerate.
I think it you plopped an s-curve that required a 20 mph reduction in speed into the middle of any frequently traveled, familiar freeway, you’d have these problems.
This traffic danger reminds me of our economic collapse. There were the danger signs, the warnings and the politicians who sounded the alarm. However there were those who were hell bent into letting it happen. They could have put up more warning signs and limited the economic traffic but they did not. They wanted to use it to blame the Bush Administration and the Republicans.
All of what you wrote is true. However, engineers have to take into account human nature. The fact that there have been 40 accidents and one death means something is wrong.
Temporary or not, they need to take into account someone doing something stupid like going faster than they would like.
A higher barrier at the place the truck when over or speed bumps to enforce the speed limit.
Just posting a speed limit is not enough.
I live and drive in Northern California. I have not been over the Bay Bridge since they started all this but I have been over it many times in the past. That whole interchange leading up to the Bay Bridge towards SF is a nightmare.
The state of California (and we the taxpayers) will be paying for Caltrans mistake.
Having one means S-curves are for more speed, not slowing down :).
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